So in common with the other two members of the C4ID ruling triumvirate, Prof Nevin would seem to be an evangelical christian, with links to a political party with a policy of promotion of biblical creationism. It should not, therefore, come as any surprise that Prof Nevin espouses six day creationist beliefs in this sermon.

I won’t repeat the scientific inaccuracies, misrepresentations, and misquotations which are so frequent within Prof Nevin’s sermon: I recommend the interested reader visit the BSCE blog. But I would make one particular observation.

The sermon is, if nothing else, such a clear declaration of belief in biblical six day creationism that the Centre for Intelligent Design can really be nothing else than a UK implementation of the Wedge Strategy, a morally dubious and dishonest strategy to insert creationism in US state schools despite legal (and constitutional) prohibition. I suggest that statements from Alastair Noble (who can be heard here expounding his literal belief in the resurrection myth) to the effect that the Centre for Intelligent Design will not target schools will turn out to be disingenuous. In this context, the FakeID campaign launch is worth reading. In particular:

Unfortunately, Scotland is the only constituent nation in the UK whose official guidance for teachers does not explicitly rule out teaching creationism and ID as science. In England and Wales, Ofsted have stated:

Intelligent Design is a creationist belief that suggests that the biological complexity of human beings is evidence for presence of a God or an ‘intelligent designer’. It is sometimes erroneously advanced as scientific theory but has no underpinning scientific principles or explanations supporting it and it is not accepted by the international scientific community.

No such statement exists in the literature produced by Learning and Teaching Scotland, the body which produces the Curriculum for Excellence – the backbone of Scottish education. This makes Scotland a soft target for the plans of the Discovery Institute and associated organisations, such as C4ID.

The Centre for Intelligent Design has all the hallmarks of the wedge strategy.